Geoffery Gambado : $b or, A simple remedy for hypochondriacism and melancholy splenetic humoursCobbold, Richard
General
Geoffery Gambado : $b or, A simple remedy for hypochondriacism and melancholy splenetic humours
Cobbold, Richard
Horsemanship -- England -- Fiction; Humorous stories
Doctor Cassock was, in his day, a most extraordinary man: he was a
double-first at Oxford, a scholar, and a gentleman. He was a most
benevolent little man, and Doctor Gambado's friend and pastor, both well
read and well bred. But he was ever cultivating his inventive faculty to
do good. In his visits to the poor, he invented new bed-rests, new
cradles, new spring beds, new comforts of every kind. He was a great
inventor of puzzle locks,--puzzle keys,--puzzle cupboards, doors, window
frames, and fire-guards. In short there was, as he used to say, no
device in the grave; therefore, he was ever starting something new.
Many a mechanic was indebted to him, and many a printer,--for in his
church of St. Mildred's, in the Poultry, he was the first to put aside
the old English black-letter character of the Bible and Prayer-book, and
to assume the type, which holds fast in all good printing-offices to
the present day. His sermons were always new, and were the only things
in which he might be said to puzzle nobody; for they were plain, simple
sermons of solid truth and practical utility.
He loved every soul, and being an acknowledged well-read scholar, he was
more popular among his people than anyone who tried to gain popularity.
His inventive faculty, had it been in the present age, instead of one
hundred years ago, might have procured him the celebrity of a Brunel,
and a fortune; but his scheming being always for others, he at last
puzzled or puddled his own affairs so as to involve himself and his
means in difficulties; and becoming very low spirited, the friend of
others had to go and consult Doctor Gambado, and to tell him at once
that he came to be a charity patient, for he had not a guinea in the
world to give him.
"My dear, Cassock," said the Doctor, "in carrying out your various
projects, you have forgotten that learning and wisdom should be joint
companions; that they are of little worth when separate, but of
inestimable value when united."
"You speak truth, my dear Gambado; and I find, by experience, that a
word of wisdom will often go further than a purse full of guineas. Quite
right. But you have known me long enough to observe, that I have ever
thought the practical part of my profession superior to all the learned
part."
"That may be true. But, Doctor, you have not confined either your
teaching or your practice to the duties of your profession. I deny not
that you have done good to many. You have done me a great deal of good;
for, to a certainty, I never knew you preach one thing and practice
another. Yet, sometimes, I have known you interest yourself so deeply in
imaginary inventions, as to persuade yourself that you were doing good,
when you were entirely mistaken."
The Doctor sighed, and simply said, "Gambado, we can never all think
alike, any more than we can all be alike. You have done right and made
your fortune; while my coat is threadbare, and I begin to want."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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